China making steady progress in snowboard giant slalom: athletes

"Step by step, we are catching up," said Chinese snowboarder Zang Ruxin after winning a silver medal at the eighth Asian Winter Games here on Sunday.

Zang and her teammate Gong Naiying took the second and third places respectively in the women's snowboard giant slalom event, pocketing two medals for China on the first day of the Games.

"I feel proud and honored," said Zang, as the medalists of the event will receive their awards at the opening ceremony held later in the day.

China's giant slalom team is making their first Winter Asiad appearance in Sapporo. Although the giant slalom is a relatively new sport in China, the country has been making steady progress and catching up with other countries, according to Zang.

"We have been participating in a lot of competitions in the world to get more points, and we are catching up step by step," she said.

Both Zang and Gong thanked their Slovanian coach Peter Kotnik for their huge progress in recent years.

"I have been making a lot of progress since the coach took over...He has taught us a lot in techniques and made very good arrangements for our training and competitions abroad," said Zang.

Gong, meanwhile, also feels that her carefree personality helps her in the sport. Though it was her first time participating in the Asian Winter Games, "I had little pressure, just like playing in a game back in the home country," she said.

In her opinion, though China started to participate in the event much later than its neighbors, the team has reached almost the same level with the South Korean team, while Japan is a more challenging rival with some very competent players.

In Sunday's women's game, Japan's Yanetani, born in 1984, finished first in both runs and won the gold medal for women's snowboard giant slalom.

But the Chinese players are confident about themselves. "We are not worse than anyone. We can do what they can. It's just that we need some time, as we had a late start," said Bi Ye, a male member of the giant slalom team.

The Chinese team is now working hard to get tickets to next year's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics while looking forward to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will be a stage for us to show ourselves, and all of us look forward to it very much. We are making a lot of efforts to achieve the goal of competing at the 2022 Games," said Bi.

They also hoped that giant slalom, a new sport in China, could flourish in the future.

"Let's all fall in love with snowboarding," said Zang. Endit